Every one is familiar with the phenomenon
of feeling more or less alive on different days.
Every one knows on any given day
that there are energies slumbering in him
which the incitements of that day do not call forth,
but which he might display if these were greater.
Most of us feel as if we lived habitually
with a sort of cloud weighing on us,
below our highest notch of clearness in discernment,
sureness in reasoning, or firmness in deciding.
Compared with what we ought to be, we are only half-awake.
Our fires are damped, our drafts are checked.
We are making use of only a small part
of our possible mental and physical resources.
William James, The Energies of Men
